Experience what it’s like to be in the midst of an orchestra playing live: hearing, seeing, and feeling the power of the performance from the musician’s perspective. Take part in this groundbreaking, digital installation that breaks down the barrier between the audience and the concert platform, and lets you be the orchestra.

"The Rite still feels so radical because you've got all these seemingly unrelated events happening in layers, at the same time... The technology allows you to get inside those layers, and understand how they combine to make the phenomenal energy of the whole thing." - Esa-Pekka Salonen

re-rite, the Philharmonia Orchestra's Digital Residency, breaks down the barrier between the audience and the concert platform, allowing new and existing audiences to experience classical music in a uniquely immersive environment.

As well as wide shots of the various sections of the orchestra, cameras were also placed on top of musicians’ heads and directly in front them to catch their playing close-up; there even was a dedicated 'conductor-camera' to ensure not a second of Salonen's reaction to the piece was missed.

re-rite also has an interactive dimension. In one room, the audience take on the role of conductor, mixing the sound and vision of the Orchestra, seeing their own image conducting alongside Salonen on screen (in a similar way, they can also ‘join’ the horn section). In another, they can perform on real instruments as part of the percussion section, guided on-screen by the Philharmonia’s Principal Percussionist David Corkhill.

re-rite was the brainchild of the Philharmonia Orchestra’s Principal Conductor, Esa-Pekka Salonen and the first in a series of digital installation projects that have become one of the Orchestra’s hallmarks.

The digital installation divides the Orchestra’s sections into different rooms: violins and violas, woodwind, and brass are represented on giant screens and other projection surfaces – gauzes, walls – as they play Stravinsky’s music ‘as live’. Meandering through these sections the viewer sees what they see, and hears what they hear.

The project was the first of its kind in 2009, and has since gone on to receive two of the highest awards in the UK for a creative project, including an RPS award for audience development. During its opening fortnight in London over 6,000 people shared the re-rite experience; this was followed with tours to Germany and Turkey, culminating in 85,000 visitors to re-rite Tianjin, in China.

Most recently, RE-RITE is featuring at the heart of the iOrchestra project, a music project coming to the South West during 2014 and 2015. RE-RITE will be housed in a state-of-the-art tent as it tours the South West, visiting Plymouth, Torquay and Truro.

re-rite uses kilometres of cable, multiple screens and innovative projection techniques to transform any space into a huge virtual orchestra. Our 29-camera audio-visual recording of the Philharmonia Orchestra performing Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring has brought a range of buildings alive - from galleries to warehouses, theatres to abandoned buildings - allowing tens of thousands of people across the world to experience an orchestra from the inside.

"Being inside an orchestra, experiencing the sensation of 101 players taking on this iconic music is one of the biggest adrenalin rushes, and one that I want to share with the world. Now we're doing just that."